YOUNG BULLS DO BATTLE WITH GRAMMAR
THE SPAR Richmond Under 16 Bulls played their first home game of the season in front of a supportive crowd on Saturday, but were downed by the visitors 19-5.
The Bulls got off to a strong start in defence, forcing a turnover early on and following it up with some good attack.
They turned the ball back over to Grammar who put in a good run, though Zai Hopkins brought their player down to stop the advance.
Grammar maintained the pressure and were able to open the scoring a few plays later.
Coach Paul Beare said the Bulls weren’t deterred and kept the pressure on Grammar, which forced a knock on.
He said some strong scrumming and great runs by Bailey Flanagan provided an offload opportunity which led to Zai gaining some good ground.
“This put Grammar into a panic and they started giving away penalties which the Bulls were able to take advantage of,” the coach said.
“The Bulls used the opportunity to make their way down the field and this was aided even more by some good cleaning out of the ruck by Hunter Mckellar and Hayden Smith.”
The successful run didn’t last long and unfortunately emotions got the better of some and one of the Bulls players was yellow carded and sent from the field for 10 minutes.
For the rest of the half the Bulls held Grammar out, but momentum was lost with the loss of the player and the score remained unchanged as they went to the break 5-0 in Grammar’s favour.
At halftime the coaches reiterated how well the Bulls were doing in the scrums but highlighted how there was no intensity in the breakdown.
“It was as a result of this that players making valuable metres in attack were getting isolated due to a lack of back up,” the coach said.
“Lineouts were also a potential weak link, with the throw ins crooked, but fortunately for the Bulls, Grammar were having the same problem.
“The Bulls took this on board and started the second half much stronger.
“Jamie Guyton looked to bumble a tricky kick off, but showed some safe hands by keeping control of the ball only to be hit by a hit shot which saw the offending Grammar player yellow carded.
“This seemed to rattle the young Bulls for a while and Grammar capitalised by scoring again.”
However, the Bulls managed to shake that off and some great defence by Hayden Smith and Clancy Stretton saw the Grammar ball carrier pushed out over the sideline down the Bulls’ end of the park.”
The Bulls kept it together and showed some clever rugby to get the ball out wide to Jack Rogers who scrambled across to put the first points on the board for the home side.
Grammar started to hit back immediately and came down the field strong, with one ball runner evading several tackles.
After gaining considerable ground and nearly being in the open, he was sandwiched between Caleb Kadiko and Clancy Stretton who put an end to his dangerous run.
Grammar kept going straight and hard towards the tryline, where a messy maul ensued, but ended when Clancy emerged with a stolen ball.
However, after a few phases the Bulls turned the ball back over and Grammar scored again.
“But time was against us and the full time whistle went after a stop in play, which left the Bulls down 19-5,” he said. Coach’s points were awarded to Zai Hopkins (3), Bailey Flanagan (2) and William White (1).